As firms move towards converged voice-data IP networks, IT departments will increasingly become responsible for the physical security of buildings via deployment of systems such as biometric access controls, IP-CCTV and card readers, new research has predicted.
A third of the IT directors surveyed in a new study by research firm Vanson Bourne Limited said that, as a result of being able to control physical security systems over IP, the area of "security over IP" will become their responsibility. In the manufacturing sector, 57 percent expected their departments to become responsible for physical security, and in the retail, distribution and transport sector it was 32 percent. In other commercial sectors, it rose to 36 percent, while it fell to only 6 percent in the financial services sector.